He was a natural born storyteller.
When it comes to meticulous world-building, nobody does it quite like J.R.R. Tolkien. But not many know that before Tolkien had brought the elves, orcs and hobbits of Middle Earth to life, he delighted his four children with epic tales of “Father Christmas” the North Pole, and they were every bit as sprawling and in-depth as his famous works.
According to Letters of Note, in December of 1920, shortly after he returned home from WWI, Tolkien secretly hand wrote a letter—as Father Christmas, of course—to his 3-year-old son, John, and placed it in his bedroom along with an illustration of Father Christmas’ home in the North Pole. It would become a recurring tradition in the Tolkien household for the next 23 years.
Each year the letters—usually written in Father Christmas’s spidery handwriting—would grow more complex as they recounted the adventures of Father Christmas and his temperamental sidekick North Polar Bear, whose rascally antics were regularly the cause of mayhem. And always, there would be a vivid illustration as well as a North Pole stamp and postage marks, designed by Tolkien.
In the letter below, written in 1925, we find out that North Polar Bear accidentally broke the North Pole while climbing on top of it to retrieve Father Christmas’s runaway hood. Poor fella crashed through the roof of Father Christmas’s home, broke his leg and spoiled that year’s gift haul with the snow that crashed down with him.
Thanks to the folks at Letters of Note, we have an easily readable transcription:
Cliff House
Top of the World
Near the North Pole
Xmas 1925
My dear boys,
I am dreadfully busy this year — it makes my hand more shaky than ever when I think of it — and not very rich. In fact, awful things have been happening, and some of the presents have got spoilt and I haven’t got the North Polar Bear to help me and I have had to move house just before Christmas, so you can imagine what a state everything is in, and you will see why I have a new address, and why I can only write one letter between you both. It all happened like this: one very windy day last November my hood blew off and went and stuck on the top of the North Pole. I told him not to, but the N.P.Bear climbed up to the thin top to get it down — and he did. The pole broke in the middle and fell on the roof of my house, and the N.P.Bear fell through the hole it made into the dining room with my hood over his nose, and all the snow fell off the roof into the house and melted and put out all the fires and ran down into the cellars where I was collecting this year’s presents, and the N.P.Bear’s leg got broken. He is well again now, but I was so cross with him that he says he won’t try to help me again. I expect his temper is hurt, and will be mended by next Christmas. I send you a picture of the accident, and of my new house on the cliffs above the N.P. (with beautiful cellars in the cliffs). If John can’t read my old shaky writing (1925 years old) he must get his father to. When is Michael going to learn to read, and write his own letters to me? Lots of love to you both and Christopher, whose name is rather like mine.
That’s all. Goodbye.
Father Christmas
So many parallels to Middle Earth are interwoven throughout these stories that there’s been much debate as to whether or not the Father Christmas letters were an influence to Lord of the Rings, or merely showcased concepts Tolkien was already contemplating for the series. There’s invented languages, nods to real-world folklore and historical events, and even elf clans and goblin battles. May have argued that Father Christmas himself was a precursor to Gandalf.
Tolkien would continue writing his Father Christmas letters until 1943, when the gift-giving hero dubbed Tolkien’s children “too old” to hang their stocking anymore. And these stories remained a secret to all but the Tolkien family until 1973, when they were published posthumously.
Tolkien might have been the father of modern fantasy, but as we can see from these enchanting letters, he was also just a dad trying to make Christmas magical for his family. It just so happened that he was very well equipped to do so.
You can also listen to a reading of the Tolkien’s 1925 Father Christmas letter below:
- YouTubewww.youtube.com